If You’re a Home Buyer Make Sure You Don’t Forget These 6 Things

Norm Andrews

If You’re a Home Buyer Make Sure You Don’t Forget These 6 Things

Many home buyers are very diligent when it comes to studying up before they make their purchase. However, far too often 6 very important things go overlooked. These common oversights can result in you losing money, wasting time, and cause unnecessary regret. Now, let’s make sure you know about these common oversights, so you can make sure they don’t happen to you!

1. Resale Value

In today’s housing market, people aren’t staying in their homes the full 30 years like most of the previous generation did before us. Things are changing fast and people are moving around and valuing flexibility more and more. People change jobs, people want to be closer to kids, basically, life changes things. This is why it’s important for home buyers to immediately consider the re-sale value of the property they’re considering.

Try and land something with a wider range of appeal, rather than a unique home that might only pique our personal interest. You might even want to discuss patterns that your real estate agent has seen in the surrounding area. Buying a home should feel right but it should also be a practical investment. Let your heart influence your decision but allow practicality a place in the decision-making process.

2. Focusing on the wrong expenses

Buyers often focus so intently on the mortgage payment and closing costs that they forget to look down the line at additional expenses that are sure to come up. Of course, the closing costs and mortgage payments are important but make sure when looking at your budget you’ve taken into account the possible landscaping costs or other additional fees that will inevitably be built into owning this particular home. It’s perfectly acceptable to ask the seller for an expense list just so you can plan accordingly.

3. Restrictions

More often than you might think buyers finalize their purchase before they’ve actually researched the type of restrictions they’ll have to work with. Sometimes you might find that you can’t do that add on because of zoning laws, or maybe you didn’t realize you’d have to park down the street! “Restrictions” can often be completely overlooked and they can really put a damper on the vision you had for your new home. Be sure to discuss any type of restrictions in terms of remodeling or just all around life with the home with your agent.

4. Previous work was up to par

Buyers can so often get wrapped up in the excitement of the “perfect home” that they neglect to look into the previous construction or renovations that took place. This is only an issue if the work wasn’t up to the proper standards. While everything might look fine now, you could find yourself forking up excessive amounts of money to potentially repair a problem you never saw coming. So make sure you look into every bit of work that went into your home and that it was properly inspected and passed said inspection.

5. The HOA

This really just comes down to proper due diligence. Never ever…ever close on your home without doing proper due diligence. Typically HOA’s making your living conditions much easier but occasionally you’ll run into some unexpected drama and chaos. There have even been instances of potential fines being put forth by the HOA.

6. Have you studied the neighborhood?

Make sure you look at the crime rates, schools in the area, commute times, etc. These might sound pretty straightforward to you but again, you’d be surprised by the type of information that gets overlooked because of excitement over the home itself. Discuss these things with your agent as well as any other type of info you should be looking for to make the best possible decision you can. This home is a very important investment and you need to make sure you’re making a well-informed decision.